Monday, August 17, 2015, 7:53 pm

3.18 mi, 36 ft gain, 34:23. RR Access Rd, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2 white.

I was expecting to be a bit sore and stiff today considering how I felt yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised that it was only minimal.

We stopped a number of times so the dogs could pee and I could take a few photos. It was a pretty good sunset, and the views along the river are great.

It was a good recovery run and a good start to my Cascade Crest taper.

Average HR 116 bpm.

 

Tuesday, August 18, 2015, 6:51 pm

8.10 mi, 1452 ft gain, 1:43:42. RR Grade & Greg Ball, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 red #5.

My new shoes came today. I didn’t realize they were only coming from Spokane. I probably wouldn’t have paid for faster shipping.  But they’re here now, and I’m glad. I compared the two new pairs to the pair I’ve been running in. The band across the arch is back slightly on the new shoes, which is good.

I modified one pair and took them out for a test run. The band isn’t back quite far enough to not be a problem, though. It’s not as bad as the last pair, but I re-laced both shoes skipping the lower outer loop on the bands. They were great after that.

I ran up the RR Grade and Greg Ball Trail. About 0.5 mi up the Greg Ball trail, I heard something off the right side of the trail. It was a small size bear about 50 yards away. It stopped on a log looking at me. I was actually able to get a short video of it, though it’s not that great. I kept making noise, speaking loudly and throwing rocks near it to scare it off. Nothing really worked until I started kicking brush and making noise that way. Then it slowly walked away down the log. It was pretty cool, but I didn’t stick around that long. It was kind of small and I wasn’t sure if it was a cub with a sow hidden in the brush or not.

The rest of the run was good. I tried to keep an easy pace. I tightened my shoes before heading back down.

It was a good run, though maybe slightly harder than I’d normally do during a taper. Or maybe not. I might to a relatively easy 10-11 miler this coming weekend.

Average HR 127 bpm.

 

Wednesday, August 19, 2015, 7:56 pm

3.18 mi, 28 ft gain, 29:28. Around town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2 white.

Much like last time I was cutting back mileage for both the taper and recovery from Rattlesnake Ridge 50k, I’m finding it kind of hard to get excited for runs this short and to keep them this short.

I had planned to to just a little longer, but decided against it. Maybe tomorrow. I waited until later in the evening when it cooled down for the dogs. They enjoyed it.

We ran pretty fast the last 0.1 mi or so. My legs felt great. I don’t expect to get anywhere near that speed on race day.

Average HR 132 bpm.

 

Thursday,  August 20, 2015, 7:52 pm

3.27 mi, 28 ft gain, 25:56. Around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

My legs felt good today. I ended up going shorter than I wanted to anyway. More of the lack of motivation during the taper, I guess.

The pace was a little faster, probably mostly due to “resting” so far this week.

Oddly, my achilles were both tight and slightly sore later in the evening after the run. I didn’t tweak them or anything on the run, so I’m not sure what’s going on.

Average HR 138 bpm.

 

Friday, August 21, 2015, 7:01 pm

5.61 mi, 51 ft gain, 56:54. RR Access Rd, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 red #6.

My achilles were a little sore again. I think it might be from rubbing against the back of the MR10v2. The heel cup is a little hard. I ran in the other new pair of shoes I recently got instead, partially due to that. I also wanted to test them out. They were just fine. I’ll decide over the next week which pair to wear, but I’ll probably have the others in a drop bag or something.

I was going to run out to WFSP solo, but changed my mind at the last minute and took the dogs on the RR access roads. We ran out past the gate toward Startup a little ways and turned around.

Once back to my road, there was a slow moving train just coming up to the RR crossing. I continued up the frontage road while we waited. I turned around when I could see the end of the train. It had sped a little by then and passed the crossing well before I got there. Another slow train was coming the other way. I wasn’t quite fast enough to make it before the train, so I had to wait again. We waited in place this time.

It was a pretty good run. I had a minor issue around my right ankle/upper foot occasionally that I couldn’t figure out. It went away by the end.

Average HR 131 bpm.

 

Saturday, August 22, 2015, 7:33 pm

4.67 mi, ft gain, 42:06. WFSP RR Grade, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 red #5.

I went a little short today. I forgot that some friends were having a party and stopped by there before heading out to WFSP for my run. I stuck around at the party a little longer than planned. I figure it’s ok during the taper.

My left achilles is still a little sore. It loosened up after about 1-1.5 mi and felt fine after that. Overall, the run was pretty good. No animal encounters.

It was hazy all day, but the smoke wasn’t really a problem on my run. I couldn’t smell it.

I really hope my achilles recovers soon.

Average HR 139 bpm.

 

Sunday, August 23, 2015, 7:22 pm

3.01 mi, 32 ft gain, 32:16. RR access rd, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 red #6.

I shortened my run quite a bit today. I wanted to get in about 10 mi or so. The smoke was worse today, though, so I cut it short.

I couldn’t really smell the smoke, but I could feel it in my throat after a while. The wind is forecast to change over the next couple days. Hopefully that will help come race day. More importantly, I hope the fires are out soon.

I felt pretty good, but I slowed down anyway. I also stopped more than usual for the dogs. I saw a pear tree in the park between the highway and the RR tracks that I hadn’t seen before. There were only a few pears left on it, and they were out of reach.

Average HR 128 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 30.9 mi, 2075 ft elevation gain